Orange County's Economic Development Authority is backing plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter near the landmark Wilderness battlefield.

The authority this week passed a resolution that says the big-box store would provide the county needed tax revenues and offer a convenient place for county residents to shop. County officials are waiting for Wal-Mart to submit some essential plans for the project before public hearings are held.

The county Chamber of Commerce also supports the retail giant's plans for its 19-acre site.

Historians and other opponents of the Wal-Mart proposal say the store will be a blight on the landscape near the battlefield where the troops of Gens. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first clashed.

On Wednesday, the Civil War Preservation Trust listed this battlefield as one of the ten most endangered Civil War sites in the nation.